Twitter can be a freewheeling and kind of fun place. People type fast, and they have to condense their comments to 140 characters, which makes for short and sometimes terse comments. They also often try to be funny in that short space. And every now and then, little disputes flare up.
That happened this afternoon between myself and the crack team of new media superstars that run Sean Bielat’s Twitter account. It all started with this conversation between “Team Bielat” (as they like to call themselves) and one Ryan Coleman:
Coleman’s first tweet was classic Twitter – tweaking Team Bielat for having just recommended following an unseemly number of accounts (for the non-Twitter-literate, “#ff” stands for “follow Friday,” which is a tradition that has grown up on Twitter of, on Friday, recommending to your followers a bunch of other accounts that they might enjoy reading). Bielat’s response was rather terse and ungenerous, as Coleman noted in his amusing response.
I found the whole thing funny, and also apparently reflective of a certain lack of a sense of humor, so I passed it along thusly:
My initial assessment of Team Bielat’s lack of humor was proven correct by the following little back-and-forth that then erupted:
Now, I don’t like being called a liar. So, in the politest way possible, I asked for some clarification, which Team Bielat of course was totally unable to supply.
So I called them out on it.
By this point, social media maven Greg Reibman (formerly of GateHouse Media, the community newspaper chain, and now an independent media consultant) had taken note. But, interestingly, Team Bielat had utterly caved on its claim that I had lied about something, as I pointed out to Greg.
“FTW,” if you didn’t know, is short for “for the win.”
Lastly, I loved this hilarious faux shock at my use of a mildly off-color expression (which, as you know if you’ve spent more than about 5 minutes on Twitter, is far from the worst thing out there).
Yes, “vile language.” I’m sure Sean Bielat’s tender ears never heard such startling words while he was a Marine.
And that was that. “Team Bielat” never told me what it was, exactly, that they were accusing me of lying about, and we all moved on to bigger and better things. Another day in the Twittersphere. Always nice to win one. 🙂
UPDATE: A subsequent tweet suggests that Team Bielat thought my “lie” was saying “We don’t work for JK3.” Well, we don’t. Pretty straightforward.
stomv says
if you take the he-tweeted she-tweeted to the blog to stake your claim of “for the win”…
you haven’t.
David says
as a documentary of something amusing that you might have missed had you not been on Twitter an hour or so ago. I’m not using it to “stake my claim” – the conversation speaks for itself.
chrismatth says
Ask why Sean hasn’t conceded to Frank yet. They get pissy trying to explain it away.
chrismatth says
Sorry for the vile language….
Bob Neer says
My position is that he actually thinks he won — ala a Birther or a Deather who can’t accept reason — which is why he won’t concede to Frank.
In any event, every interview of Bielat should begin: “Do you accept that you were defeated by Barney Frank in the last election,” and if he answers “Yes,” then as a follow-up, “Well, why do you refuse to concede to him, in that case.”
Too funny.
JimC says
But —
1. “Team Coleman” is a funny initial reply.
2. Good to know #YouLie is an active hashtag.
I get a big kick out of Twitter. Vox populi.
hlpeary says
waste of time…
honestly, who cares about the he-tweeted and he-tweeted back…nonsense.
sabutai says
Sean said something like kinda mean to Ryan and Ryan was all like “that sux” and Sean was all like “you suck” so I got all like “no, Ryan is right, Sean sucks” and Greg goes “you two are fighting” and I was all “he’s not fighting so I win and he sux.”
hoyapaul says
it does seem to indicate another reason (if we needed any others) why Sean Bielat and his team are not ready for prime-time. He really wants to get involved in a Twitter war with BMG? Why?
Little things like this and his bizarre refusal to concede to Barney Frank last time around give the sense that Bielat has a long way to go before he amounts to anything in local politics.
kbusch says
I hope his opponents find a way to capitalize on this character flaw.
SomervilleTom says
With all due respect, this is barely worth a second read buried in the comments. I see nothing about this that merits its presence on front page. I’m with stomv on this.
The primary lesson I take from this is the utter uselessness of twitter.
David says
that’s why God created scroll bars. 😉
bluewatch says
What happens on Twitter is just not that interesting.
Not a front page story.
David says
nt
whosmindingdemint says
flew into the kitchen today.
And then it flew out.